My siblings have all had fur, feathers, shells or scales. I never had a pony, but eventually took dressage lessons. I grew up skating (roller, ice and boarding), skiing, dancing, drawing, painting, playing the piano and watching endless broadway performances, television and movies. I’ve bobsledded down an olympic track, ballooned, sky and scuba-dived (with mantas), and have an obsession with NASA and the Titanic. I’m also a true crime junkie and a fairly huge nerd. But of all my pastimes, travel certainly became one of my favorites.

Growing up, my parents would always take my brother and me on vacation. I eventually contracted a severe case of the travel bug, and decided to make it my personal mission to experience a different country and culture each year. With each trip, my love for history and architecture grew, and with it, my appreciation and love of photography. It allowed me to relive the experience long after I returned home, and I began to take real pleasure in seeing the world from unique perspectives.

The following “memories” are untouched and unaltered. Unless the plan is to hang them in a gallery, I generally prefer to revisit my favorite places as they had been on that particular day. (It’s definitely not because I’m a trigger-happy tourist who hasn’t had the time to retouch all 12,500+ photos uploaded to multiple iCloud accounts!)